davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Novel Wall Decorations.

"While in New York few days SINCE"
writes Fuller Walker, II took the oppor-
tunity to visit some of the leading dec
orative artists, just to learn what is the
prettiest and newest thing out for the
furnishing of rooms. At the office OF
the Art Age, on West Twenty-third
street, saw whole room lined with
what is called Russian crash, or burlap.
1t can be had in New York, sixty-eight
inches wide, for fifty cents yard. 1t is
of light pearl color, closely woven, and
makes an admirable background for any
style or color of decorations. The room
I saw was lined with this crash, mar
row fold of the same being put over the
seams, or where the edges joined. A
frieze of the same ran around the top of
the room. This had been hand-painted
in oils and was fastened to the wall at
its lower edge with large-headed brass
tacks. The effect of thewhole was very rich
and fine. Such tint and material make
a good natural background for pictures,
especially engravings, to hang against.
Brown linen, such as busters are made
of, is now being much used to decorate
rooms with. Flowers or q conventional
design can be painted on this cloth in
fresco colors, such as scene-painters use.
Any one can mix these colors, and with
a little practice will soon be able to paint
charming designs. A hall bed room
would be a good room to begin upon.
Calling upon a celebrated physician in
New York I found his library, above
the bookcases, lined with deep red
straw mating, tackled on with brass
tacks. The effect was all that could be
desired. Wall papers have had their
day, unless they are very fine and artistic.
No modern house of any pretensions now
tolerates wall paper. A room may be
very cheaply and beautifully decorated
with stuffs of all kinds, if only one will
give the subject little thought and 60
at t."-Boston Transcript.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Painted Peas.

81 wouldn't order those French peas,
if were you," observed well-known
New York physician to Mail and Er-
press reporter, as they were dining in an
upper Broadway cafe.
"Why not2"
"Because green peas, especially French
ones, are deceptive. Time was when
green peas were as honest vegetable as
ever grew. But in this age of deception
and fraud very few vegetables can pre-,
serve their integrity"
'Do you mean to say that these are
bogus peasE"
HNo, but the color is sometimes bogus.
It's as unreal as the paint on al actresses
face"
SIS it dangerous2"
II have never known it to do anything
more dangerous than to kill person. 1t
is usually, however, not that dangerous.
only know of one fatal case, and in that
instance a mistake had been made in
coloring the peas; too much poison had
been used. Sulphate of copper is the
poison the Gamers use to paint on their
faded vegetables the verdant hue of
growth and freshness. A small quantity
only is used" y,
'sWhy don't the authorities prevent
the sale of them2"
"It is not a universally accepted fact
that they are poisonous. American doc
tors, notably the members of the Massa-
chusetts Board of Health, agree that the
combination of sulphate of copner and
peas is hurtful. On the contrary, many
French and Bulgarian physicians claim
that it not only is not harmful, but IS a
positive remedial agency, and sometimes
recommend it to patients suffering from
certain maladies. For my part, though,
1 prefer my vegetables unadorned. l like
them plain and clothed in the colors ma
ture gave them. A decorated pea has no
charms for nle."
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
A Watch for the Blind.

"This is one of the cutest things in
the watch line that has yet appeared, "
said jeweler Charles S. Crossman, of New
York city, holding up one of the new
Swiss watches designed for the use OF the
blind. THE old raised-fgure watches
are clumsy, and the blind people were
constantly bending or breaking the
watch hands by touching them: IN TINS
watch small peg is set in the center
of each figure. When the hour hand IS
approaching a certain hour the peg Tor
that hour drops when the quarter before
it is passed. The person feels the peg IS
down. and then counts back to twelve.
He can thus tell the time within a few
minutes, and by practice he can become
so expert as to tell the time almost ex-
actlv. They have been in use about SIX
months, and there is steady and grow
ing demand for them"
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Raise Better Horses.

Fashion has brought about many
changes in horse breeding among Ameri-
can farmers, and no race has set the new
style more forcibly or to larger purpose
than the American trotting horse. The
American trotter is horse capable of
every service; there is, in almost literal
truth, no limit to the speed in which he
can trot one mile, and his capacity of
endurance, whereof such contests are
most exacting proof, is accepted as a
fact in the minds of all observant men,
while his patient temper and good size,
combined with the extraordinary muscu-
larity with which true systems of breed
ing have endowed him, render him an
exceedingly valuable animal for any work
of labor and routine.
The farmer who is looking forward to
improvement in his stock must be careful
in making selection of his breeding ami
mails, and, herein, it is of the utmost i'm
portance that the sire chosen be an avail
able, valuable, and in every respect, a
choice animal, possessing Individually
and ancestrally the best qualities which
the offspring is desired to possess
american Agriculturist.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
ALWAYS Tell the Truth.

A careless man while at work in the
Back Bay the other day dropped brick
from the second-story of the building
upon which he was engaged. Leaning
over the wall he discovereda a well-dressed
gentleman with his hat crushed over his
eyes and ears and engaged in desperate
effort to extricate his head from its bat
tered covering.
"Did that brick strike any one down
there9" the man inquired, his voice
quivering with apprehension. The af-
ficted citizen, who had just removed the
dismantled cranial adornment, replied,
with considerable wrath:
"Yes, sir; it hit me-"
"That's right" came the cool and ex-
asperating response. 81 would rather
have wasted 1000 bricks than to have
had you tell me lie about it."-BOston
Record.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Shine Shooting.

Come with me and we will see how the
thing is done, says Maurice Thompson in
the St. Louis Republican. Yonder is the
marsh, a wide, fiat area, covered with
tufts of tall grass and dotted here and
there with little pools of water, around
which grow fringes of yellow willow
trees. There is stiff breeze blowing
out of the southwest, and the grass
rustles and sighs sharply. We start in
at brisk pace. eager to flush the lurking
game. I hunt them down the wind, so
as to shoot them as they rise and turn.
Ten to one it will startle you when the
first bird gets up out of the grass with q
whiz and cry of Escape, scape." You
see whitish something somerset in the
air and begin zig-zagging away at o
speed wholly unexpected, and in line
as spiral as the thread of screw. as q
rule the fight is not more than ten feet
above ground; usually it is near the
horison, so that the shooter finds it very
puzzling to follow the bird with his eye.
You must be quick of aim and bang
away, hit or miss. After a few trials
you will begin to find knack of catch
ing the game with your sight just as it
fairly clears the grass and on the instant
that it pauses before making its somer-
set. If you wait longer you must have
an eye like kingfsher's and the quick
ness of cat to make successful shot,
for he leaps this way, then that, whirl-
ing over, shying, skipping, leaping, fall
ing like boys kite when it is not prop
erly balanced, and, indeed, running
through all the possibilities of eccentric
flight. If you hit and kill him he always
falls upon his back. He is good hider
when winged, and you must have dog
to find him.
For the best snipe grounds 60 to
Louisiana; the Calcasieu and Bayou:
Teche regions are full of game in No
yember and March. Good shooting may
be had, however, all along the Atlantic
coast from New Jersey to Florida, and
over all the wet parts of our western
prairles, provided you can find the right
spots.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Writing at Long Range.

One of the most beautiful of modern
inventions-it remains to be seen whether
it is as useful as it is beautiful--the in
strument devised by Mr.. John Robertson
for the transmission of writing by cleo
tricity, may be seen at work at the Amer
ican Exhibition. Out of the top of 9
box, which is about the size of an ordi-
nary despatch box, protrudes what has
the appearance of stylographic pen.
This, however, is not u pen, but the
handle of the "transmitter, and its
lower end is fixed to light brass perpen-
dicular bar. Any motion given by the
hand-you hold it just like the pen-to
the handle of the transmitter is commu-
nicated by this bar to two series OF car
bon disks contained within the box, and,
after various adventures among magnets,
etc., is carried again to the top of the
box, where it is reproduced exactly by a
small ink-holding pen, whose point rests
on a white paper tape. A clock-work
apparatus pulls this tape along at gentle
pace, and after little practice you find
that it is quite easy to move the handle
of the transmittcr so that the pen shall
write legibly on the moving tape.
Now, whatever is written on the tape
before you is written simultaneously
mile off, on similar tape by q similar
instrument at the other end of the wire.
The instrument is very compact and ap-
parently efficient, and as it is quite silent
there seems no reason why reporter
sitting in the House of Commons could
not straightway write off his report OF a
debate to be instantaneously read OF In
Printing House square or Northumber-
land street. A name will be wanted for
this machine. Perhaps the "wire writer"
will do.-PaU MaU Gazette.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
a oShort-Hand" Writer.

By an accident while cunning in Mis-
souri, when a boy, Postmaster ]. G. Hen
dirk. of Brooklyn, shot off the fingers
off his right hand. In writing. the New
York Tribune says, he holds his pen be-
tween his thumb and the stub of his fist.
When he was college sophomore at
Cornell he accepted the editorship Of q
little foolscap-sized sheet daily at Ithaca,
in the place of the former editor, who
had suddenly disappeared. Mr.. Hen
dirk composed the entire staff, doing the
work of reporter, correspondent, scissors
driver and leader writer. In his capac-
ity as reporter he attended supper of
the Ancient Order of Hibernians on the
evening of St. Patrick's Day. A burly
looking I1ishman watched him as his
pen, so queerly held, ran nimbly along
over the paper. Again the next day the
same man brought companion with him
into the newspaper office, and, after buy.
ing copy of the paper, loitered behind
with his eyes fixed upon the editor who
was then scribbling away as rapidly as
the night before. Then turning to his
friend the Hibernian said
"Faith, it's often Olive huhrd tell of
thin shorthand writers, but this is the
furst tonne Oi ivver sit oiyes on one of
thimw
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
The Aroma of Butter.

Professor Arnold says in his Stock
Journal: The aroma of butter has very
complex origin. 1t springs from certain
volatile oils which exist in the plants on
which the animals feed. Voelcker re-
ported butter to contain two per cent. OF
these oils. The per cent. varies largely
in the product of individual cows.-ED.
To these are given the names butyrin,
caproen and capryolic acids which are
the occasion of rancidty of butter. The
easy formation of these acids is one Of
the greatest obstacles to the manufacture
of good butter. But the volatile oils In
butter are not confined to three or four
varieties. Every sp' cles Of herb upon
which the COWS feed, and, indeed, upon
the farm, has more or less volatile oil pc
culiar to itself, on which its peculiar
odor and flower depend. 1t is easy to
see how the flavor and odor Of butter
are affected by the food the cow con-
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Farm improvements.

Every farmer should try to get time to
make some Improvements on his farm
every year, and there is no better time to
do this than during the autumn months.
AS soos as the weather becomes lrttlc
cool the farm laborers will work with
more vigor than they can in the spring or
the summer. Among other improve
ments roads should not be neglected; ;
these are important, and where much
used they should be well made, and to
make good road over wet place it
should be well underdraine1. On farms
where there are plenty of stones the
road-bed should be constructed over all
wet places by first covering with stones
to the depth of eighteen inches; this
will insure hard, dry road, if the
stones be covered with six inches of good
gravel. When stones cannot be easily
obtained the road-bed should be kept
dry by laying in the middle of the rold
four-inch tile, covering it with sand or
gravel, so that the water can easily get
to the drain. A road once well built
will keep in good order for many years,
but if only half built it requires constant
repairs, and is then never satisfactory.
In building farm roads is, as rule, best
to avoid the hills, even though it in
creases the distance, and as rule it is
better to cross a hollow than 80 over a
hill, because it is easier to fill up than to
dig hill down, especially on rocky
farms, for there is almost always some
old stone wall that it is desirable to get
rid of, that is just what is wanted to
make road-bed of. The autumn is q
good time to clear up new land, es-
pecially low land; the springs are usually
low, SO the work can be done much bet
ter than in the spring, or in fact any
other season of the year. Every farmer
who has unreclaimcd low land should
make it his rule to clear up portion of
it every year until it is all reclaimed
Nep York Observer.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
CONFINEMENT.

10 rain." fair maid chided," cruel ruini
To open all thy water spouts to-day
And food the earth with tearsi Oh, cease,
Ipray,
And will call thee blessed But restrain
Thy flood gates for this day. ask no
more;
Tomorrow thou canst bid them ceaseless
pour"
10 rain," the farmers daughter joyful
cried,
"Long had thy reservoirs been tightly
sealed
Against our prayers, until the thirsty field
Nigh periShed! Now thou comest all tear
eyed
And sheddest life anew DER all the earth;
I bless thy coming, rain, I know thy
worth"
"Ah me-" the rain soliloquized, but they
Contentment know who do accept each day
Without complaint whate'er befalls, or shine
Or rain, as sent by One All-wiSe, Divine.
Louis c. Ziegler, in Current.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
AGRICULTURAL.
TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE
TO FARM AND GARDEN.
Care of the Cucumber Patch.


I made it practice for number of
years to let the first cucumbers which ap-
pearcd 60 to seed, says a Rural New
Yorker correspondent. The result was
had very few cucumbers for table use
and scarcely any smaller ones for pick
ling. Now I take special pains to pick
off every cucumber, whether needed for
table use or not, and the result is strong
growth of vine and plenty of either Gu
cumbers or pickles. 1t is astonishing
how much difference there is in the yield
from patch where some of the cucum-
bers which come on early are permitted
to 60 to seed, and patch from which
every pickle and cucumber is picked
each morning. have found that the
best plan is to begin to pick the small
cucumbers as soon as they will do for
pickles, and as rule enough will escape
our notice, until they are too large for
picking, to supply the family with Gu
cumbers. A plot forty feet square with
proper care will furnish all the pickles
and cucumbcrs small family will re-
quire; certainly all the average house
wife will care to attend to.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
"Once q Day.

Thirty years agv, one of the most
famous elephants that travelled in this
country was "Old Columbus" During
one of his summer trips through Vir-
ginia, he stopped at the town of D.
In the neighboring town of H, q boy
familiarly called "Dave," and notorious
for leadership in all kinds of mischievous
tricks, determined to show off before the
other boys at "Old Columbus's" expense,
and invited several of his companions to
60 with him.
Having come to the elephants stable,
Dave gave him, first, candy, then cake,
and finally cried: "Now, boys!" and
slipped piece of tobacco into his pro.
boscis, intending to get out of danger,
and enjoy "Old Columbus's" disgust and
anger.
But, before he could move Columbus
seized him, and whirled him upward
through the opening overhead against
the roof the stable.
Unhurt by his unexpected "rise," Dave
dropped on the hay-mow. The other
boys below, supposing this to be the
"trick" promised them, cried out in ad-
miration:
"Dave, Dave, do that again."
Dave comfortably seated out of harms
way, very earnestly answered:
''No, boys! I only do that trick once
O day!"
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Swiss Glaciers Growing Again.

Comformably to the laws of adva ace
and retreat of glaciers, it is said those in
the valley of Chamounix, Switzerland.
are now beginning to advance. The
lower extremity of the Glacier dies Bos-
sons is mot more than 5000 feet above
the level of the sea-" and is going still
lower. During the last three years this
lower extremity has ''advanced at the
rate of fifty yards year" 1t is said
that ga grotto cut out of the ice in May,
1886, quarter of mile from the ex-
tremity, has moved down more than sixty
yards" Although other Alpine glaciers,
which cannot be so definitely observed,
are known to be increasing in width and
height, it will require many years of the
present speed "before they occupy
ground which within the memory of
living persons they once covcred."-
Rochester Herald.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Mother of Pearl.

In the western suburbs of Vienna
flourishes an industry which, as gen
eral rule, does not attract much public
attention, although it is OF some import
ance. This is the manufacture of articles
and ornaments where mother of pearl is
used. Attention has lately been drawn
to this industry, owing to the breaking
out of a strike among those engaged in
it. 1t appears that the value of the
crude mother of pearl which is annually
consumed in the district is $500, 900
forms (about $500, OOO), while the value
of exported articles is 100000 forms
(about e670, ,00W. In the latter figures
are not included the articles which are
sold in the home market, so that making
an allowance for this item the annual
value ofmother of pearl articles produced
in the neighborhood of Vienna may be
set down at about $1,000, 900 sterling,
showing that this industry is one of con-
siderable Observation-Disclosures.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12

sumes. A cow eating peppermint, for
instance, carries the oil of peppermint
into her blood, and thence into her milk,
where, rising with the cream it is carried
into the butter, giving it the flavor of
aroma of the mint. Cows do not live
upon single variety of herbage. Twenty
different kinds are more likely to be
found in a single pasture than only one.
The mingled oils of all these constitute
the aroma of the butter made from their
milk, each one having its modifying in
fuence, though some may be distinctly
recognized, when, like onions, garlic or
cabbage, their influence is greater than
that Of all the rest.
The kinds of food which furnish the
most agreeable aroma are the most de-
sirable for dairy pasture, though they
may not yield the most. More people
are pleased with the aroma from
Kentucky blue grass than with any
other; hence blue grass is regarded as
the best food for the dairy. By little
attention every dairyman can determine
for himself what food is most available
for his herd; and that little attention
will impress upon him the fact that if ne
would make an-favored butter his
COWS must not live on garbage, litter or
strong scented weeds. There is another
popularity about the essential oils in
herbage, from which the dairyman may
sometimes derive advantage. 1t is the
different degrees of lightness they possess,
the rapidity with which their essential
oils are evaporated by heat, For in
stance, the pungent oil of the horse
radish is 80 volatile as to escape in q
short time by exposing the crushed
radish to the air; the poisonous oil of the
wild parsnip and of ivy escape while the
foliage is withering; an offensive oil is
green clover, which affects butter un-
favorably, escapes while it is driving, so
that the dry plant makes better pro.
duct than the green. The aroma of
turnips, cabbage, onions, ETC., are
heavier and not entirely carried away by
drying. But by heating the freshly
drawn milk, even th:se oils can, in many
instances, be entirely driven out.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
A SimOle Test of Kerosene.

The North Carolina State Board OF
Health, in one of its bulletins, gives the
following simple test for kerosene !:
Take an ordinary pint tin cup: Fill II
within an inch of the top with water
warmed to the temperature of 12O de-
erccs. Pour on this water three or four
tabespoonfuls of the oil to be tested.
Stir the Gil and water together, and wait
a short time, say minute or two, Tor
the oil to collect on the top. Try the
thermometer again, and if the tempera,
ture is more than one degree from l2O
degrees, add little cold or hot water,
as the case may be, so as to bring the
temperature to within one degree of l2O
degrees Then stir again and give time,
as before, for the oil to come to the top:
Now apply burning match or lighted
taper on a level with the top of the cup,
say within half an inch of the oil. II
within one second no flash occurs, the
oil is reasonably safe; otherwise, it is
unsafe. Purchase four or FIVE gallons OF
oil at Il time, and apply this test at each
purcha.e.
The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12
Not Very Conversational.

There is an American in the customs
service in China who is quite charac-
ter. His GOODNESS and assurance have
tried the patiece of Sir Robert Hart the
Imperial Director of Customs many times
these twenty years, but he is still there.
He never could learn Chinese, and even
when it was made imperative that the
customs men should know the language
to some extent he didn't learn 1t. tic
was always doing something wrong or
against the rules. On one occasion SIR
Robert Hart was in Shanghai, and, walk
ing down the Band, he met the Amerl-
can, whose post was at Southern port.
The American saluted. go
"Wcll, sir" said Hart, will you have
the goodness to explain why you are not
at your post in Amoy?'
"Certainly, Sir Robert. 1 am travel
inc with No. Mandarin on duty"
HYou! You can't be of much use.
How do you managed You don't under
stand Chinese2"
mo; but I don't talk to him."